PEOPLE WHO CHEATED DEATH IN THE COOLEST FASHION POSSIBLE

We all like to think of ourselves as badasses. But what would you really do if faced with death? These people not only survived their terrifying encounters, but did it in incredibly cool style: http://goo.gl/dSlCNu

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Eating coal daily!

Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou were working hard in a coal mine when the tunnel they were working in collapsed, burying them alive. With no rescuers coming, the brothers started digging themselves out. Armed with only one pickaxe and their bare hands, they tunneled their way through 66 feet of coal. And on the way out, they munched on the food source available to them...

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Surviving a 33,000 foot fall!

Not only did flight attendant Vesna Vulovic survive an explosion that blew her plane into pieces, but she was the only person to live after hitting the side of a mountain below. Normally this would totally suck by itself, but it was winter so the mountain was also frozen which probably made it feel like she hit it after falling 33,000 and 10 feet. She hit so hard she was left paralyzed ... but then regained her ability to walk through sheer force of will and balls-out effort, and survived.

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Lasting 133 days on a life raft!

...as a castaway, catching goddamn sharks for food. Poon Lim was steward on a British ship during World War II, which the Germans blew up. Surviving the explosion was no biggie for Poon, but it forced him to climb into a life raft and hang out until he was rescued ... 133 days later. Between doing awesome stuff like catching sharks and drinking the blood of birds he caught, he also had to deal with sunburn, seasickness and storms that wrecked his food and water supplies.

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Growing bear-proof skin!

Brent Case was minding his own business while working as a surveyor in the forests of British Columbia when Death came to visit in the form of a 900-pound adult grizzly bear. Unfortunately the bear wasn't looking for a fair fight and started munching on Brent's skull. At one point he thought the bear was actually eating his brain. Playing dead got it off his case, though, and with his scalp hanging in huge flaps from his skull and bleeding heavily, Brent managed to get up and go for help.

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Being an invincible little girl!

First-grader Alexis Goggins had to save her mom from some crazy dude. She did this by jumping in front of him and taking six bullets, point blank, including a couple to the head. This created enough time for the cops to arrive. And Alexis might've considered dying, but she decided she still had some shit to do. Death could only watch as she grabbed her stuff and headed back to the land of the living, despite some serious injuries that would have killed most of us twice.